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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24325897">Keep me in your Wonderland</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlorBexter/pseuds/FlorBexter'>FlorBexter</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>My Engineer (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Explicit Sexual Content, Frong is just really bad at looking after himself tbh, Humour, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Misunderstandings, Pining, Romance, Snark and Sass to hide a mushy core</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 05:33:52</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>6,335</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24325897</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlorBexter/pseuds/FlorBexter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p><em>Frong frowned. Had Thara watched him? He hadn’t realized because he had been occupied with not looking at Thara. Because he knew his sex voice, and he had to hold himself back, in his drunken stupor, to not walk up to Thara and tell him that. His sex voice was almost the same as his patient voice Frong thought. Just deeper, and he liked to speak into Frong’s skin, burn his words there to linger and his hands, gosh, he couldn’t keep his hands still. Frong was sure every inch of his body had been touched by Thara and maybe that was a doctor thing?</em><br/>or<br/>Frong is rather emotional stunned for such a suave guy but it will - hopefully - work out in the end.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Thara/Frong</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>167</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I wrote the first chapter after episode 9 or 10 I think when Frong was in full snarkiness mode :D There is just something about the pair which is made of the grumpy one who thinks he found his arch-enemy coupled with the one who thinks he's cute and needs a hug LOL<br/>And I decided that Cupcake is a Leopard Gecko because I think they are cute :D </p><p>And without further ado, I hope you have fun reading ^^</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>(1)</strong>
</p><p>„If you glare at him harder his head will explode,” Win said with a big grin on his face and Frong took his eyes from Thara who was entertaining Duen and the horde of people Duen had brought with him to the bar. The sip of beer felt cool and refreshing travelling down his throat, and he waited for Win to take a gulp of his cocktail when he said: “I slept with Thara.” </p><p>It was rather satisfying to see as Win spluttered the cocktail across the table and over his shirt and tried to get his wits back while coughing. Frong patted him on the back.</p><p>“What?”, Win asked, his face red and Frong nodded and smiled politely at the people looking at them in curiosity. “What are you talking about?”</p><p>Win was always the cool, laid-back guy and Frong liked him, he really did, but it was also nice to see him that shocked.</p><p>“I slept with P’Thara,” he repeated himself and then swatted Win’s hand away when he wanted to check his temperature.</p><p>“Weren’t you the one announcing that you hate him a couple of weeks ago?”, Win asked and tried to dry his shirt with a couple of napkins. Now the people looked because he revealed his six-pack. Frong snorted and took another sip from his beer.</p><p>“It’s a hate-sex-situation,” he explained. It was. It was also something that happened one time… maybe three times, but it won’t happen a fourth time because he had dignity. The second time had only happened because he had been overwhelmed by how good it had been and that Thara had known what he was doing. Surprise, nothing else.</p><p>At one point he had reached back to dig his fingers in the back of Thara’s neck while they had kneeled on the bed and Thara had to hold him upright with his arm across his chest and maybe, just maybe his thrusts had been so deep and so good and had left Frong shaking and maybe he had tilted his head back to rest on Thara’s shoulder and it could have happened that he had groaned that if there was no repeat of this night he would do something drastic. Thara had laughed and had asked what something drastic meant but then his orgasm had hit Frong out of nowhere and he had forgotten to answer. Which was an answer in itself because orgasms did muddle the brain. But the second time happened and the third time… well, his mother had a tumor and hospitals sucked and Thara always had this smile on his face, this kind, nice smile, and he brought flowers to the patients and Frong really wanted to scratch that smile from his face.</p><p>So, the third time happened and Frong had left in the middle of the night, with Thara’s handprints on his waist and he had been rather proud of that because Thara was always so careful and measured when he was with Frong and he hated that, too.</p><p>Hate sex… it was that simple.</p><p>“That’s not something I understand,” Win said and smiled brightly at the waiter who had brought him a new cocktail without a prompt, “I understand one-night-stands… but hate-sex?”</p><p>Frong waved his concerns away. “It was an itch, it’s scratched, we move on.”</p><p>Which was a lie because the itch was still there and Frong had told himself he wouldn’t talk with anyone about his nights with Thara but now Thara was here, and sat at the armrest of those big sturdy couches and the need to tell someone had been overwhelming.</p><p>Shocking Win had been a bonus.</p><p>“To be honest, you are the first one I know who slept with Thara,” Win said then, “he’s nice yes, and I saw plenty of people flirt with him and he flirted back? But I never saw him leaving with anyone.”</p><p>“He’s too nice for that.”</p><p>“You can still be nice and have one-night-stands?”, Win said and mumbled, “I’m plenty nice.”</p><p>Frong downed his beer in one go and turned his head away from the group. They got louder by the minute.</p><p>“No, what I mean is… he’s too nice, that’s why he slept with me. He wants to fix me.”</p><p>Win stared at him. “With sex?”</p><p>Maybe they were too drunk for that conversation Frong thought and sniffed at Win’s cocktail to see if he would like that. He did, that’s why he stumbled out of the bar a few hours later and didn’t see that sign, which hung too low. Seriously, who had installed that sign?</p><p>“How many fingers do you see?” Frong stared up at Thara and was on the verge of telling him where he could put those fingers but, he snorted, he already had them there, right?</p><p>“Three,” he said, well-behaved, and adjusted the icepack on his head. He still felt a bit woozy but had no idea if that came from the injury or the booze.</p><p>“Do you feel sick?”, Thara asked and gently moved his head back and forth.</p><p>“I’m drunk,” Frong said and then giggled, “I don’t know.”</p><p>“Yeah,” Thara murmured, “you drank quite a bit.”</p><p>Frong frowned. Had Thara watched him? He hadn’t realized because he had been occupied with <em>not</em> looking at Thara. Because he knew his sex voice, and he had to hold himself back, in his drunken stupor, to not walk up to Thara and tell him that. His sex voice was almost the same as his patient voice Frong thought. Just deeper, and he liked to speak into Frong’s skin, burn his words there to linger and his hands, gosh, he couldn’t keep his hands still. Frong was sure every inch of his body had been touched by Thara and maybe that was a doctor thing?</p><p>He wanted to ask but Thara interrupted his thoughts. “Why were you going home alone?”, he asked and Frong frowned. He raised his hand which wasn’t occupied cooling his head. “I’m tall,” he explained. He was tall enough to walk home alone.</p><p>Thara shook his head at him in what looked like fond exasperation and Frong wanted to say, that yes, he really was tall enough to go home alone. Didn’t Thara believe him?</p><p>“I think it’s best if I take you home, you maybe have a mild concussion.” Again? Frong was sure that he had that in the past already.</p><p>It took him a while to realize that home meant Thara’s home and as he stood in the tiny kitchen of Thara’s apartment he was a bit lost. The bump on his head felt tender and hurt and he was no longer drunk enough to not feel embarrassed about running into a sign in front of Thara. The icepack in his hand had already melted and water dripped over Frong’s finger. When he heard Thara coming back into the kitchen he wanted to ask him if he could use the kitchen towel to wipe up the water from the floor and because he already had exposed himself as a fool in front of Thara he didn’t feel that mortified about his squeal when he turned around and Thara stood too close with his damn lizard in his hands.</p><p>“What?” Thara asked as if he really had no clue why someone might feel the need to scream when he was confronted with a lizard in front of his face. Frong had a concussion and felt the initiation of a hangover, he was allowed to freak out because of Cupcake.</p><p>“I had to say ‘Hello’ to him, we woke him up,” Thara explained and cooed at Cupcake. Frong was more of a cat person even if he had to admit that that leopard gecko was cute. He decided for himself that he was allowed to use that damn kitchen towel and used his foot to clean the little water puddle. He put it with the icepack into the sink and hoped that sober Frong would remember to see to it the next morning.</p><p>“You should take a Paracetamol, you will have a headache tomorrow anyway,” Thara said while he opened his fridge and Frong knew, from personal experience, that he had more than human food inside that fridge. Cupcake was a spoiled lizard indeed.</p><p>“Are the people making Paracetamol paying you to prescribe it all the time?”, he asked and frowned when he realized that he slurred his words. He leaned back against the sink and rubbed a hand over his face, the bump still hurt, and he was sure he could sleep then and there. Why was he so tired suddenly?</p><p>“Here.” Frong took the glass of water and little white pill and swallowed the medicine. He didn’t like that the buzz from the alcohol was quickly fading and the pain started to spread from the bump over his face.</p><p>“I’m going to call myself a taxi,” he said and liked it even less how Thara was looking at him. Kind, the small smile on his lips and why was he so kind all the time?  </p><p>“I think you should sleep here,” he said then, reasonable and whoever thought he wasn’t also a stubborn bastard had no idea who stood in front of him. Whatever. Frong was too tired to argue anyway.</p><p>“Your couch then,” he said but Thara steered him towards the bedroom with both hands on his shoulders and Frong didn’t think this was a good idea because he knew how the blankets felt against his naked skin and great now he was horny. How was he even able to sleep now? He shouldn’t have worried because the moment he climbed under the covers and closed his eyes he was gone to the world.</p>
<hr/><p>Someone was massaging his head and Frong buried his head deeper into the pillow but didn’t move away from the magic fingers in his hair. He felt a dull pain behind his eyes and when the pillow moved across his forehead it felt… tender? He turned on his back and blinked up to Thara who sat against the bedhead, a thick book on his lap.</p><p>What? Oh, he remembered.</p><p>“How’s your head?”, Thara asked and Frong mumbled something incomprehensible. He didn’t want to think about how he had ended up here and slowly dragged himself out of bed. He still wore his shirt but thankfully drunk-him had taken off his pants. He turned to squint at Thara who just looked back at him and the horrifying realization kicked in that this was the first time he had stayed the night, and they didn’t even have sex…</p><p>“I’m gonna wash up,” he said and fled to the bathroom where he stared in the mirror and brushed his hair to the side to look at the red bump on the edge of his hairline.</p><p>“Why did you run against the sign?”, he asked himself and threw cold water into his face. And why was Thara always just <em>there</em> when he did something embarrassing? Should he just sneak out? He knew how to leave the apartment without making a sound, he had done it three times already. But there was the problem with his bare legs and that he had no idea where his keys and phone were…</p><p>“You can use one of the disposable toothbrushes under the sink,” Thara’s voice came through the door and really there was a package of colourful toothbrushes in the little cabinet. Frong huffed. Thara had an electric toothbrush, why did he need a supply of the disposable ones? It seemed like more people stayed the night than Frong would have thought.</p><p>“<em>’I never saw him leave with anyone’,</em>” Frong quoted Win and started to brush his teeth with angry movements. Apparently Win wasn’t as observant as he thought. He threw the brush away after he was done and why was he even angry? Thara could sleep with as many people as he wanted for heaven's sake. Good for Thara, right?</p><p>He pulled the door open and almost walked into Thara who had his hand raised for a knock.</p><p>Frong stared at him.</p><p>“I wanted to ask if you want to shower? I have some spare clothes you can borrow if you want?”</p><p>‘Some spare clothes, huh?’, Frong wanted to growl but he had never been good at expressing his anger in a controlled way and he might have just played himself but who cared?</p><p>First, he had tried to avoid kissing Thara because he didn’t want to make Thara think this was more than sex, but now it was a way to not have to look at Thara and his smiling face and kissing was always better than punching him because that was frowned upon.</p><p>Thara’s hand laid against the small of his back nothing but a light pressure but it made Frong furious. Why did Thara always think he needed to be gentle with him? Frong had both hands on Thara’s face to kiss him deeply, with teeth and tongue and desperation and he tried to bring him to move back towards the bedroom but Thara stood solidly there and wouldn’t budge.</p><p>“Just say if you don’t want to,” he murmured.</p><p>“Who said I don’t want to?”, Thara asked and had the nerve to brush Frong’s hair to the side to look at his bump. Frong rolled his eyes.</p><p>“I am no longer drunk, and my head isn’t killing me, can we move on?”</p><p>“So polite,” Thara said in a low voice and gosh that was his sex voice Frong realized with a little thrill and Thara’s hand wandered from his back down to his butt and his touch was still light and Frong kind off hated that he knew that caressing his butt cheeks sent shivers of arousal through Frong but at least they were on the same page now. Pleased, Frong let his hands travel down from cradling Thara’s face to his shoulders, broad, solid, delicious shoulders and he fisted his hands into the fabric of Thara’s shirt to get that off him.</p><p>He fell, face first, against Thara when Thara pushed his hands down his shorts to grab his butt, skin to skin and Frong mouthed his groan against Thara’s neck. That was unfair he thought through the haze of his arousal. It just felt so good, those broad, nice hands on his ass, squeezing lightly, it made him want to rub himself against Thara until that alone would make him come.</p><p>“Be—oh shit, bed, come on.” Thara had made the unfair move of tracing a finger lightly over the sensitive skin where his butt met his thigh and Frong had to hold tightly onto Thara’s shoulders because his legs were made of jelly now. This has gone from zero to hundred for him in a second and his dick strained against the restriction of his shorts, leaking an embarrassing amount of precum already.</p><p>“P’Thara,” he whined.</p><p>“You should learn some patience,” Thara said, <em>something</em> in his voice, but Frong couldn’t care less.</p><p>“Screw patience,” he said and slipped out of his shirt and shorts when Thara let him go and cleared the path towards the bedroom.  </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>(2)</strong>
</p><p>Frong liked sex. He liked the prelude, liked the main course, liked it short, or long, or playful, liked how a broad hand felt against his heated skin, liked to feel stubbles on his neck and his thighs. He liked how it made his head <em>empty</em> for a certain time, that he only had to think about what felt good, that it was often enough to communicate in groans and moans and nothing more than <em>Oh god yes, that’s it.</em></p><p>Sex with Thara was all that and he knew that he had told Win that the itch had been scratched, but yeah… <em>no</em>.</p><p>Sex with Thara was good because while Thara checked in with him regularly he also ran away with his knowledge about what Frong liked and reduced Frong to a babbling mess and he appreciated that.</p><p>Frong let himself fall back onto the bed and grabbed Thara’s arm to pull him down with him. Thara landed on him with an indulgent smile on his face and immediately had one hand under his butt to squeeze and one hand on Frong’s head to frown at the distance to the headboard.</p><p>“I will not hit myself, no worries,” Frong said impatiently and took Thara’s hand to guide it to his dick. “I have to be at my brothers shop in an hour.”</p><p>Thara just raised an eyebrow at that and deliberately squeezed Frong’s butt cheek slowly and Frong couldn’t deal with it but let his legs fall open. Thara rewarded him with his other hand around his dick, his touch light and frustrating and Frong rolled his eyes at him. He looked towards the nightstand and yes, the ridiculous dispenser with the lube was still standing there, all prim and proper and seriously only Thara would transfer lube into something that looked like it belonged to an older lady who had lavender soap in it.</p><p>Thara’s hands wandered away from the locations Frong really wanted them to stay at and that was all kinds of unfair. He raised and wrapped his arms around Thara’s shoulders, and that had been a pleasant surprise - the coat he was wearing at the hospital really made him an unshaped blob - the first time Frong had seen him in a tight t-shirt with the broad back like a tantalizing fruit hanging in front of him. He might not like Thara very much, but he could appreciate someone hot when he saw one.</p><p>He mouthed light kisses over Thara’s jaw, and the warm press of Thara’s mouth on his was just really delicious and nice, the swipe of their tongues, lavish and slow as if they had all the time in the world.</p><p>“How about,” he murmured against Thara’s ear and buried his hand into Thara’s thick hair, pulling on the strands and smiled when he felt how Thara began to arch into the sensation, “How about I ride you, let me do all the work for once.” Thara’s fingers dug into his waist, involuntarily, and Frong smirked. Gotcha, he thought and put his hands in Thara’s pants and wrapped them around his dick, all silky and wet and gosh he loved the feeling of a hard erection in his hands. Frong mhmed satisfied and helped to get rid of Thara’s last pieces of clothes.</p><p>“Let me,” Thara said and his hands wandered towards Frong’s ass again, but he wasn’t having that.</p><p>“Nope,” Frong said cheerfully and raised up to bully Thara to sit against the headboard. “It’s my turn today.” If he would let Thara do the prep, this would, quite literally, go out of hand. He straddled Thara’s lap and bent sideways to get the lube and a condom from the drawer. Thara started a counterattack, his hands warm and solid on his waist, his mouth on Frong’s sternum to bite playfully and Frong’s laugh was a little breathless. There always had been a moment during their last times when Thara’s gentleness had been too much for Frong when he had wanted to push Thara away and hide somewhere to get his bearings back, but the moment had always disappeared under a wave of arousal. He leaned back a little to get his fingers where they needed to be, and his other hand surged up to hold on at the back of Thara’s neck when he scratched his blunt fingernails over Frong’s nipples, making him groan in surprise.</p><p>Thara smiled up at him with his trademark smile which said something like: <em>“Me? I’m just here to help, don’t mind me.”</em></p><p>“Put your hands to more useful tasks,” Frong said in a rough voice and rolled his hips towards Thara’s hand on his dick.</p><p>“At your service,” Thara said and of freaking course, he was using both his hands to drive Frong crazy, not only stroking his dick, tight and with the perfect upwards stroke, but also rolling his balls between his fingers, temptingly close where Frong’s own fingers prepared himself, Thara’s hands slick with precum and lube, warm and calloused and Frong closed his eyes, his head tilted back because Thara was watching him, always looking for a reaction.</p><p>His thighs quivered, heat pooling low in his belly and his own fingers were not nearly enough, but they already sent flashes of <em>almost there </em>sensations through his body.</p><p>“Condom,” he hastily said and raised up on his knees and wasn’t it great that Thara was always so quick with his hands?</p><p>This was one of his favourite parts, he thought when he began to slide down on Thara’s cock. The way his body made way, the pressure, the up and down, slowly, deliberately, and every time a little bit more of his nerve endings began to burn. Thara sat under him, still and unmoving, one hand around his waist the other around his shoulder and Frong knew that it must be painful how his fingers dug into his shoulders but he was occupied with breathing and groaned every time he inched down, his hair a sweaty mess in his face.</p><p>“Fuck,” he said every time he breathed out because <em>Fuck</em> this was good. He should have ridden Thara a long time ago because he just let him, without urging him on, just let him take his time and it felt, it felt like an epiphany to feel how he opened up one inch at a time, the way Thara’s dick switched inside him. He was aware of Thara’s heavy breathing, his low moans, and his eyes felt like laser beams on Frong’s skin.</p><p>And then—<em>there</em>, Frong fell forward with a loud moan, and Thara’s arms slung around him while he buried both of his in Thara’s hair to kiss him, messy and wet and he already moved because he needed to feel that surge of mind-blinding arousal again and again. Thara moved upwards to meet him, their lips only inches apart, almost touching, their breathes warm puffs between them.</p><p>“Oh Fuck,” Frong groaned, “oh fuck this is…”</p><p>“They way you look,” Thara murmured, putting little bites on Frong’s jaw all the way down to his neck and Frong tilted his head back to let him and he had maybe planned to have a steady rhythm going on for the first part of this ride but they were already on their way to the end and—</p><p>“Fuck!” He extended one arm, which collided hard with the wall behind the bedhead but Thara had both hands on his ass cheeks, squeezed tight, pulled them apart, repeated that, and Frong couldn’t do anything but <em>moan, </em>lost, totally lost and his fingers scrabbled helplessly against the wall and Thara’s back, bent over him, unable to move. He wasn’t able to describe the feeling when someone grabbed his butt that way, almost too much, almost ticklish but it spread from there through his whole body until even his fingertips prickled and Thara pressed him down, held him there, a constant pressure against his prostate.</p><p>“Oh fuck, oh, oh—oh I’m going to, oh <em>nhhnnn</em>.”</p><p>His balls tightened up and with a thought, bordering on hysterically, he remembered that his dick was rubbing against Thara’s belly and the shock that he was going to come without anyone touching his dick tipped him over the edge and he grabbed Thara tightly as the orgasm spread from his groin through his body, tingling in his spine and throughout his limbs. Extasy and pleasure rolled in waves over him and he felt how his dick twitched and when he relaxed his muscles again another ripple of pleasure travelled through him, slow and luscious and he moaned something that might have been a heartfelt <em>Fuck</em>.</p><p>When his senses returned, he remembered, with a flick of embarrassment, that he wasn’t the only one in this bed. He raised his head and realized, relieved, that Thara’s fingers were still squeezed tight in his buttocks. He breathed heavily and twitched every time Frong moved.</p><p>That was a good sign, Frong decided and untangled himself from Thara to fall back on the mattress.</p><p>“That… was good,” he said to no one in particular and when he stretched himself it felt like a mini-orgasm and he couldn’t believe even his toes tingled in pleasure. Thara crawled over him and Frong didn’t mind the lazy, slow kiss. It was a nice completion.</p><p>“What time is it?”, he asked and Thara shook his head at him. He turned towards the nightstand nevertheless and checked his phone.</p><p>“Ten minutes to ten,” he said and Frong groaned.</p><p>“I have to go, let me wash up quickly and then I will be out of your hair.” He didn’t wait for a reply and staggered towards the bathroom to wash up and then collected all his clothes.</p><p>“Thanks for your medical aid,” he yelled towards the apartment in general as he slipped into his shoes in the entrance corridor. He checked his pants for his keys and phone and looked up in surprise when Thara appeared, only clad in his shorts.</p><p>“Do you need a ride?”, he asked and Frong quickly shook his head. “I’m gonna use a moped taxi, bye.” And he was out the door. He stopped for a moment, the doorknob still in his hand and took a deep breath.</p><p>“The last time,” he told himself, “this was definitely the last time.”</p><p>He wrote his brother while he waited for a moped taxi and got some unflattering emojis as a response.</p><p><em>‘I will hurry!’</em> he wrote back and instead of getting back to his dorm room he told the driver to drive him to his family house. He showered quickly and as he rubbed his hair dry, he looked at the red bump on his forehead. His hands hovered over the injury, then he pressed his fingers into the light love bites on his chest and as he turned halfway, he saw Thara’s handprints on his butt.</p><p>That was a bit hot he had to admit. Which didn’t change the fact that he couldn’t stand Thara and that he needed to stay away from him.</p><p>His hair was still wet as he entered the flower shop and First threw an apron at him.</p><p>“Sorry, sorry,” Frong said with a deep Wai and got a pinch in his ribs for his troubles.</p><p>“I know you went drinking yesterday! Did you overdo it?”, First asked with his hands stemmed into his side and Frong smiled and petted his hair because he was always amused that he towered over his big brother. First feinted a swat with his gloves at him and pushed him behind the counter.</p><p>“Fang is out and delivers the flowers for the Thanadenuth wedding and we have three customers who still need to pick-up their orders, you think you can handle that?”</p><p>“I think I can,” Frong answered and scrunched his nose at First, “it’s not my first time in the shop.”</p><p>First huffed at him and yelled while he went through the back of the shop: “There are painkillers in the drawer if you need any.”</p><p>“Just go,” Frong yelled back. When he heard the backdoor closing, he put the apron on and tidied up the worktable because he couldn’t stand how First sorted the shears. The bells over the door chimed and Frong looked up in Duen’s smiling face and couldn’t do anything else but smile back.</p><p>“Welcome back,” he said and waited but Duen’s boyfriend didn’t enter the shop behind him, “you are alone here today?” Duen really was cute and Frong was still a bit miffed that he hadn’t been quick enough to make his move.</p><p>“Yes!” Duen said and clasped his hand together. He looked nervous, Frong thought.</p><p>“Do you need help to pick out a flower?” Duen shook his head and fiddled with his fingers and Frong really needed to stop to crush on the cute ones.</p><p>“I wanted to ask if you know where I can buy a rose bush?”</p><p>“A rose bush?”</p><p>“Yes, something to grow,” Duen said and a blush was riding high on his cheeks.</p><p>“Do you want to grow your own roses and compete with our shop?”, Frong asked with a teasing smile and had the pleasure to see Duen all flustered.</p><p>“No! No, no, your roses are the best.”</p><p>“My brother will be pleased to hear you said that,” Frong said and walked back to the counter. “We only sell cut flowers, but my brother has some lists of nurseries, you should be able to get your rose bush from them.”</p><p>“That is very helpful, thank you,” Duen said as Frong squatted down to look through the folders and frowned when he saw a foreign-looking portfolio squashed between them. A bank portfolio? Did First want to expand the shop?</p><p>“These are two addresses for trustworthy nurseries,” he told Duen, a bit distracted, and wrote the addresses down on a piece of paper. “They will sell you a rose bush that won’t wither within weeks if you treat it right.”</p><p>“Thank you very much,” Duen said, “I can buy a flower as a thank you if you want?!”</p><p>“No…” Frong said and turned the cover page of the portfolio when he saw the word mortgage. “That’s not necessary. You were one of our steadiest customers this month. Good luck with the rose bush.”</p><p>He didn’t really notice when Duen left the shop. A queasy feeling started to form in his stomach as he browsed through the booklet. A mortgage? Why did First want to put a mortgage on the shop?</p>
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<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>(3)</strong>
</p><p>There were two approaches his family took when it came to handling problems. Ignoring them until they exploded in their faces, like how his mum hadn’t taken her stomach pain seriously until she almost collapsed in front of the hospital, or loudly confronting whatever the issue was without preamble like his father had done when First had decided to drop out of college to take over the flower shop.</p><p>Frong chose the first way. He had put the brochure back where he had found it and had said nothing when First had come back from his delivery.</p><p>Frong tended to stew on his problems, much like his mum did. Which, he knew, wasn’t the healthiest way, especially when he coped with it in another unhealthy way on top of that.</p><p>He liked going out and wouldn’t consider his definition of a good time getting completely wasted, but currently, everything looked funnier when he was drunk.</p><p>Which was why he leaned against the cold tiles of the bathroom of the bar and tried to remember why he had stumbled into it. He didn’t feel the need to pee nor was he on the verge of throwing up but whatever made him hide in the bathroom was great because he really enjoyed the coolness of the tiles against his overheated back. It was a strange combination of sensations, he thought. The tingling cold on his back, the heat in his cheeks, and as he raised his hands to wiggle his fingers in front of his face they felt like artificial extensions of his hands.</p><p>“Are you okay?”</p><p>Oh. Yes.</p><p>There he had the reason why he hid in the bathroom. He really needed to ask P’Win why he was so obsessed with the prom king reunions. Was he trying to make the most of his best years before he would graduate? But Frong didn’t say no to his invitation, didn’t he? At least he would if he knew that Thara would appear. But he was irritating because he made an irregular habit out of it to appear at the gatherings.</p><p>The last two times he hadn’t come, but today…</p><p>Frong had fled to the bathroom because Thara had appeared at their table and for a moment Frong had wanted to kiss him. Had wanted to kiss him really badly and that was not acceptable.</p><p>The urge to have sex with him? Okay. It was allowed to be horny around Thara, but the desire to kiss him was not okay. Wanting to see him was not okay. He had made the decision to not fall in bed with Thara anymore. He needed to hang onto that decision.</p><p>Hiding in the bathroom seemed like the logical conclusion, but who would have thought Thara would follow him there?</p><p>“Frong?”</p><p>And pressing yourself against the wall without moving in the hopes Thara would oversee him, didn’t work either. Shocker.</p><p>Thara started to frown at him and came closer. He wore a striped button-down, black denims, and Frong almost asked Thara to turn around for him because he looked nice. Handsome. Hot. <em>Kissable</em>.</p><p>It wouldn’t be too bad to kiss Thara, right? Kissing was something else than getting home with Thara and sleeping in his bed. Or sleeping with him. He could kiss him, just today, for this evening and after, everyone would go home into their own bed.</p><p>Frong reached out to grab Thara by the shoulders and Thara actually stepped closer, without hesitation and maybe he wanted to kiss Frong, too. Which was good. It was good that they were on the same page with the kissing, Frong thought and then frowned when instead of lips Thara’s hand was on his face, on his forehead to be precise and his eyes hurt a bit when he turned them upwards to see what Thara was doing.</p><p>“You’re not that hot,” Thara said and Frong spluttered.</p><p>“Excuse me?”, he said and looked down on himself. He looked like a snack, thank you very much.</p><p>Thara met his eyes with what Frong would describe as his ‘mocking’ face and the smile was nice but also a bit not nice.</p><p>“You don’t seem to have a fever, but you are quite drunk, mhm?”</p><p>“Just a little bit,” Frong admitted. And it wasn’t like it was Thara’s business anyway.</p><p>“Do you want to go home?”, Thara asked and Frong frowned at him.</p><p>“I don’t want to go home.”</p><p>He was very happily leaning against the wall and if Thara hadn’t come he would be happily sitting outside with his friends.</p><p>“Really, do you want to wait until you hit your head again?”</p><p>Frong crinkled his nose. It wasn’t like he was hitting his head all the time. It happened, more often than was probably necessary for his health but he was tall, and things hung low and it wasn’t his fault.</p><p>Thara continued to look at him and that was the most unnerving part about him, the fact that Frong had to fill the silence on his own and what should he say? He decided to act on what already filled his head anyway and pulled Thara closer to brush their lips together. It was as nice as he had imagined it and at first, it stayed nice. Thara’s lips were soft and yielding and he did the thing where he put his hand behind Frong’s ear and stroked the sensitive skin on his jaw. It just made Frong want to deepen the kiss and Thara followed him, pressed him against the wall, and from one moment to the other Frong realized how aroused he really was. It was hot, hot in him and everywhere Thara touched and he was torn between getting rid of his constrictive clothes and fondling every part of Thara he could reach. He was hard, he realized with a giddy little huff and went back to kiss Thara and started to grind against him, slowly first, delicious and just the right pressure, and maybe Thara wanted a blowjob?</p><p>Then there were hands on his hips, and he thought that Frong would finally get things started but the hands stopped his movements and that wasn’t at all what he wanted.</p><p>“What?”, he asked, and his hands fell from Thara’s now dishevelled hair back to his shoulders.</p><p>“We need to stop,” was Thara’s explanation and Frong scoffed.</p><p>“No one needs to stop, come on.”</p><p>“You are drunk,” Thara said and Frong rolled his eyes so hard it actually hurt a bit.</p><p>“Come down from your high horse, can you please not play the moralizer for one goddamn minute?”</p><p>“How am I on a high horse when I just don’t want to go further while you are drunk?”</p><p>Frong didn’t even know. It irked him, was all, that he had to stop just because Thara said so. Because he was reasonable. So, he was drunk and? Wasn’t he allowed, now and then, to make questionable decisions?</p><p>Frong let go of Thara. “Yeah, whatever. Just go back and be your overbearing self somewhere else.”</p><p>And maybe he had said it to provoke Thara, maybe he wanted to have a shouting match in a bathroom in a bar, maybe even for everyone to hear. He felt how it itched under his skin.</p><p>But Thara didn’t get loud.</p><p>The movement of his arm, the placement of his hand next to Frong’s head was slow and deliberate.</p><p>“I like being with you,” Thara said and Frong, who had looked anywhere else but Thara’s face had to return his look, “but I’m not your punching bag.”</p><p>The click of the closing bathroom door wasn’t loud. Nothing about Thara’s words or departure was loud and Frong had never felt like something had felt like a bucket of cold water, making him instantly sober. Instead, he still felt hot all over and with a sigh he let his head fall back against the wall.</p><p>Why was he suddenly tired, but still agitated? He felt like he could sleep for hours but also, like he was ready to beat someone up just because.</p><p>He wasn’t a violent person… or was he really that drunk?</p><p>“This sucks,” he told the ceiling of the bathroom, and as someone else entered he took it as his cue to leave.</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>to be continued. </strong>
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